Myself (Ben White) and my friend John are running a full length Marathon in the Sahara Desert for charity. We're spending a week living in a refugee camp in Algeria and we're raising money to help the people who live there.

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The Sahara Marathon

About the Sahara Marathon

So I'm running a marathon, but where is it and what's it about?

Not to be confused with the Marathon Des
Sables, this Sahara Marathon may be a walk-in-the-park by comparison but with a
mere 75 people (globally) officially running the 2012 race, we will be a
substantial part of the UK contingent (hoped to be around 20 people for the
2013 race).

2013 will be the 13th time this event has
taken place and is run by the secretary of state for sport, Government of the
Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic with the help of volunteers from all over the
world. The SaharaMarathon.org official website holds loads of history and information about the run itself.

The event itself incorporates a marathon,
half marathon, 10km, 5km and children’s race and promotes both sports activity
among the Saharawi as well as fundraising and awareness of their plight.

It
is a race to prevent the Saharawi people from being forgotten

The map above gives you an idea of where the Western
Sahara is in relation to the rest of Africa. The red dot marks the area just
inside Algeria where the three refugee camps have been in place for the last 35
years.

Almost within touching distance of their occupied homeland.

The image below shows a satellite map of the
three refugee camps each named after one of their home cities that they have
been forced to abandon. The route of the race is also shown as it links the three camps.

The four “Wilaya” or mini-towns which are
the four refugee camps a little way inside the Algerian border and has been
home to more than 200,000 people.

With no farmland or other means of
self-sufficiency, these people are totally dependent on aid from outside.

We will be staying the Smara camp for the
week and living with the Saharawi people in their family homes, sharing their
food and way of life.

This is more than just a run in the desert.

This is a real cultural and spiritual
journey and we will not be the same when we return.